On
Saturday, March 5 Lakes Region Republicans will have a chance to weigh in on
who will be the GOP nominee for President of the United States. Please note
that Maine does not hold a presidential primary and the caucus is your only
chance to vote for a candidate to represent the party in the November election.
You will have a chance to cast ballots in the Maine Presidential Nominating
Caucus and join fellow local Republicans in municipal caucuses where you will
be able to meet local candidates for Maine House and Senate, as well as
nominate people to attend the State Republican Convention on April 22-23 in
Bangor.

Three
of these regional caucuses will take place in Cumberland County and each one
has a list of participating towns. For the Lakes Region Caucus the
participating towns are Baldwin, Bridgton, Casco, Frye Island, Gray, Harrison,
Naples, Raymond, Sebago, Standish and Windham. Residents of these towns must
attend this regional caucus to participate. It will take place at Windham
Middle School at 408 Gray Road in Windham. The event kicks off at 8 a.m. with a
schedule that you need to be aware of.

At
8:30 a.m. registration for new voters and for those who wish to change their
enrollment from unenrolled to Republican begins. It is also possible to do this
at your municipal office prior to March 5. Democrats that wanted to enroll as
Republican would have had to do so prior to February 19 to participate in the
March 5 Republican caucuses.

At
9:30 a.m. voter registration ends and the municipal caucuses begin. At this
time you are also free to cast your ballot in the Maine Presidential Nominating
Caucus. Photo IDs will be required to vote in the Presidential Nominating
Caucus. It’s important to attend your municipal caucuses to meet local
candidates for the Maine House and Senate, sign petitions to get those
candidates on the ballot, and learn how you can get involved in their
campaigns. There will also be the election of delegates and alternates to the
State Convention, nominating County Committee members, and in some cases
electing municipal committee officers.

At
10:30 a.m. presidential candidates and their surrogates—supporters and
candidate family members—will be giving speeches. Should other speakers be
present who are running for national or county-wide office, they will be given
an opportunity to deliver their messages.

From
there, voting will continue until 12:30 p.m. Any additional municipal caucus
business will continue once speeches end.

For
those who wish to attend the Democratic Caucus, they are scheduled to take
place on Sunday, March 6 at various times and places in each municipality.

I
hope you use this opportunity to cast your ballot in the Maine Presidential
Nominating Caucus and to get involved in national, state, and local races.

WINDHAM – Sears Hometown and Outlet
Stores, Inc. reported today that its Sears Hometown Store, Sears Outlet Store,
Sears Home Appliance Showroom and Sears Appliance & Hardware locations
nationwide raised $986,291 for Make-A-Wish® during its 2015 “Season of Wishes”
holiday campaign. As part of the nationwide charitable program, which ran from
Nov. 2 to Jan. 15, the Sears Hometown Store in Windham, encouraged customers to
make incremental donations of $2, $5 or $10 through various incentive
promotions to support the wish-granting organization.

The funds raised allow Make-A-Wish to
help more children with life-threatening medical conditions experience the
powerful impact of a wish-come-true. Throughout its 2015 partnership with the
organization, Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores raised more than $1.4 million
for Make-A-Wish, helping to grant nearly 150 wishes.

“We believe a wish is a powerful force
in helping children with life-threatening medical conditions and we are so
thankful to the residents of the lakes region for helping support our efforts
by donating to this amazing cause,” said store co-owner Bob Yates of Windham. “Together,
we’re making a life-changing difference in so many families’ lives.” The
Windham Sears store raised over $1,100 toward the project.

In 2014, the Company’s campaign for
Make-A-Wish raised more than $500,000. It plans to support Make-A-Wish again in
2016 to continue helping grant the wishes of children with life-threatening
medical conditions. Plans for the next campaign will be released later in the
year.

David Williams, president and CEO of
Make-A-Wish America, said, “With every event we hold and every donation given,
we’re shining some brightness into the lives of children diagnosed with
life-threatening medical conditions and their families. To achieve our goal of
granting the wish of every eligible child, we need support of companies like
Sears Hometown and Outlet stores and we are grateful they make it a priority to
give back to their communities.

Windham Center Stage Theater is holding
auditions for their spring musical, You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown.Auditions are Tuesday, March 1st,
6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Wednesday, March 2nd, 5:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Callbacks are
Wednesday, March 2nd, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Auditions will be held at Windham
High School, 406 Gray Rd. Enter through the canopy entrance and someone will be
there to greet you. Please prepare a musical theater style song to sing with
piano accompaniment (approx. 15-30 bars). An accompanist will be provided, but
please bring sheet music. Also, prepare a comedic monologue to perform. Show
dates are May 20-22 and May 27-29. For more info, go to www.windhamtheater.org
or contact us at windhamcenterstagetheater@gmail.com.

By
Rep. Mark Bryant - If you’ve been following the news, you know there has been a
lot of discussion about changes at the Windham Correctional Center. The plan to
renovate the facility has been in the works for years, and it is finally
starting to come to fruition.

However,
Gov. Paul LePage has recently thrown a wrench into the process by proposing to
move mental health patients from Riverview Psychiatric Center to the Windham
prison. This would delay implementation of the current plan that has already
been thoroughly vetted by the community. Not only that, but it may even be
violating the constitutional rights of Maine’s mentally ill, and I believe it
would fail to meet the needs of both prisoners and mental health patients.

Last
week, I stood up before the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee to
voice my opposition to any changes to the original project that have not come
before the Windham community.

Up
to this point, I had been very pleased with the Department of Correction’s
efforts to work with the community, provide information at forums and public
meetings and listen to concerns to ensure that we are moving in a direction
that we are all comfortable with. The governor’s proposal takes the project in
a completely new direction.

I
believe that we must move forward with the critical renovations that have been
the product of so much work. The scope of this project should be determined by
the needs of the Windham Correctional Center and the needs of Maine’s
correctional system as a whole, and a thorough process has led us to this point
where we have a solid plan in place.

Moving
mentally ill individuals into the prison would not only disrupt the current
work being done, but it would be detrimental to patients’ treatment and
recovery process. Patients are not prisoners and we should not be perpetuating
that harmful stigma. In fact, the National Alliance on Mental Illness is
against the governor’s proposal to add a mental health unit and testified at
the bill’s hearing that it is “blatant criminalization of mental illness.”

A
recent trip to the Riverview Psychiatric Center with the other members of the
Windham legislative delegation made the importance of keeping these two groups
separate even more apparent. Prisoners need programming that will in many cases
lead to a reintegration back into society, including job training. Mentally ill
individuals require treatment, highly specialized staff and a hospital facility
that is geared towards their needs.

The
mission of the Windham Correctional Facility is “to improve public safety by
decreasing the recidivism of both male and female prisoners by providing
opportunities for correctional rehabilitation within a supervised and secure
setting, while assuring the safety of the public, the staff and the prisoner.”
We need to work towards renovating the building so that it is able to
effectively fulfill its mission.

GRAY
- Citizens
on the west side of Little Sebago Lake have begun an official movement to
secede from the town of Gray and join Raymond’s tax base. On January 28, 2016, representatives
from the Gray Secession Committee, delivered notice of the secession effort to
Deb Cabana, town manager of Gray.

Geographically,
the secession territory is separated from the town of Gray. These residents
have to travel through the town of Raymond to get to Gray. Raymond has provided
emergency services for their area for around fifty years and the mail has been
delivered through a Raymond mailing address. A serious identity crisis exists
for many of these residents who do not feel connected to the town of Gray but
do feel connected to Raymond.

They
feel that the town of Gray’s current mil rate of 18.3 is a reflection of a
municipality that favors undue spending at the expense of its residents. Many
feel that the continuous increase in tax rates are out of line with the lack of
services provided. On top of that, many citizens feel that some of the current
municipal town councilors are their adversaries, not public servants working
for the people. The disconnect with Gray, the lack of services provided, along
with an ever increasing tax mil rate of 18.3 has caused residents to seek out a
secession from the town and join the Town of Raymond.

The
legal authority for the act of secession of a territory from a municipality is
found in Article I Section 2 of the Maine State Constitution and the Maine
Revised Statutes at Title 30-A, Sections 2171 & 2172. As required by law,
the Secession Committee has appointed five individuals who will serve as the
official representatives of the territory. These individuals are Jennifer
White, David Getchell, Margo Fournier, Scott Mildrum and Debora Luce. White
also serves as the spokesperson and chair for the committee.

The
secession committee is creating a proposed map of the secession territory and
volunteers will begin circulating a petition within the territory seeking the
support of all registered voters. If 51 percent of registered voters within the
territory sign the petition, it will then be presented to the Gray Town Council
and a public hearing will be held on the matter. State law mandates that the
secession committee must get the permission of the legislature in Augusta to
proceed before a referendum vote can be held. If the legislature gives
permission to move forward a bill of secession will be submitted to the legislature
at the appropriate time.

This
is a citizens’ initiative effort that welcomes volunteers. Visit their Facebook
page, Gray Secession Committee, for updates and information.

Last
year two meetings were held to discuss the 23,000 square foot women’s
pre-release facility that was to be built on River Road in front of the Maine
Correctional Center. Landry/French Construction Company of Scarborough broke
ground in late November. Next week, the foundation will be poured, according to
Dr. Joseph Fitzpatrick, Commissioner of the Maine Department of Corrections.

The
program allows women with three years left on their sentence, who have good
behavior, the opportunity to transition to the pre-release program. Though this
facility they continue to get training, therapy and management, however they
are no longer behind bars and are encourage to work in the community.
“This is extreme low risk. It’s called community level of custody and there is
no risk to the community, but a lot of benefits,” Fitzpatrick said at the
meeting last March.

The
building will have state of the art security, cameras and alarmed doors and two
officers will be on duty at all times. There will be 68 beds with an addition
24 possible, if needed.

The
pre-release program currently resides in Alfred in a building that it too small
and lacks programming space. It also has no medical facilities for the women
who have to travel to the Maine Correctional Center to get care.

They
anticipate the project being finished in early 2017 and will cost just under
$10 million.